A 7-Dish Pakistani Iftar Menu, in US Cups and Ounces

The menu

A Pakistani iftar table is usually a mix of something sweet to break the fast, something cool, something fried, and one heavy dish. This menu has seven items:

1. Dates
2. Chana chaat
3. Pakoray
4. Dahi baray
5. Haleem
6. Jalebi
7. Lassi

Menus differ from home to home. This is one sensible set, not the only one. All amounts below come from our own recipes, with US and metric together. The recipes serve different numbers, so we say so each time.

1. Dates

The simplest item, and the traditional first bite for many families. Put out 3 to 4 dates per person. If you want a dressed-up version, our stuffed dates use 16 soft dates, 4 tbsp toasted nuts and 2 tbsp tahini or 1.75 oz (50 g) soft cream cheese. That recipe comes from the Gulf, but it fits any table. It needs no cooking and takes 15 minutes.

2. Chana chaat (serves 4)

• 1.5 cups (300 g) boiled chickpeas, or tinned and drained
• 1 onion, 1 tomato, 1 green chilli, all finely chopped
• 2 tbsp chopped coriander
• 1 tsp chaat masala, salt
• Juice of 1 lemon

Mix, add the lemon at the end and serve cold. Rinsed tinned chickpeas work as well as dried. Total time is about 15 minutes plus chilling.

3. Pakoray (serves 4)

• 2 cups (250 g) gram flour (besan)
• 2 sliced onions, 1 thinly sliced potato
• 2 chopped green chillies, 2 tbsp coriander
• 1/2 tsp turmeric, 1 tsp red chilli powder, 1/2 tsp carom seeds
• About 2 cups (500 ml) oil for frying

Whisk a thick, lump-free batter, fold in the vegetables and fry spoonfuls on medium-high heat until golden. Too hot and the outside burns before the inside cooks. Slice the vegetables thin. Allow 15 minutes of cooking. These are best hot, so fry them last.

4. Dahi baray (serves 4)

• 1 cup (200 g) split black lentils (mash), soaked at least 3 hours and ground
• 2 cups (500 g) yogurt, whisked with a little sugar and salt
• 2 tbsp tamarind, mashed, for the chutney
• 1 tsp chaat masala, 1 tsp roasted cumin
• About 1.25 cups (300 ml) oil for frying

Fry small balls of batter until golden, soak them in warm water for 10 minutes, and squeeze gently. Pour yogurt over, add tamarind and spices, and chill 15 to 20 minutes. The recipe suggests making them a few hours ahead, since they soften as they sit.

5. Haleem (serves 6)

This is the long one. Our chicken haleem needs 20 minutes of hands-on prep but about 265 minutes of cooking.

• 1.3 lb (600 g) bone-in chicken, skin removed
• 3/4 cup (150 g) cracked wheat (dalia)
• 1/4 cup (50 g) each of barley, red lentils and split chickpeas
• 7 oz (200 g) onion, half for stock, half fried
• 1 tbsp each of ginger and garlic paste
• 1 tsp turmeric, 1.5 tbsp red chilli powder, 1 tsp garam masala
• 4 tbsp ghee

Soak the grains and lentils for at least 2 hours, or overnight. Boil the soaked mix for about an hour, shred the chicken, mash the grains, and simmer together for about 45 minutes, beating hard at the end for a stretchy texture. Top with fried onion, ginger, mint, coriander and lemon. It thickens as it sits, so stop while it is slightly looser than you want. If you prefer beef, the classic version needs 2 to 3 hours of slow cooking, and our Dhaka haleem is a related Bangladeshi take.

6. Jalebi (serves 6)

• 7 oz (200 g) all-purpose flour, 2 tbsp gram flour
• 3 tbsp yogurt, 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1.5 cups (300 g) sugar for the syrup, with a pinch of saffron and 2 crushed cardamom pods
• About 2 cups (500 ml) oil

The batter ferments for 8 hours, so start it the night before. Pipe spirals into hot oil, fry about 2 minutes, then soak in warm syrup for just 1 minute. Longer, and they turn soggy. Many families also buy jalebi from a sweet shop on the way home, which is a perfectly good shortcut.

7. Lassi (serves 2)

• 1.75 cups (400 g) full-fat yogurt
• 0.4 cup (100 ml) chilled milk
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 2 crushed cardamom pods, optional

Blend until frothy, chill, and pour over ice. For a salty version, swap the sugar and cardamom for water, salt and roasted cumin. Double or triple this for a larger table.

Order of work

1. The night before: soak the haleem grains and start the jalebi batter. Soak the lentils for dahi baray.
2. Early afternoon: start the haleem. Put the chana chaat ingredients in the fridge, ready to mix.
3. Mid-afternoon: fry and soak the dahi baray, then chill. Blend the lassi base and chill it.
4. About an hour before sunset: mix the chana chaat. Fry the jalebi and soak them.
5. Last 20 minutes: fry the pakoray, finish the haleem with its garnishes, pour the lassi.

Your timing will differ with your stove and your crowd, so treat this as a plan to adjust.

Pantry check

Ingredients repeated across the menu are yogurt (dahi baray, lassi, jalebi), chickpeas (chana chaat, haleem), tamarind, chaat masala and a lot of oil. Count your yogurt: this menu uses roughly 4 cups in total.

Scaling the menu for a bigger table

Every recipe shows metric and US amounts with a servings scaler, so the 4-serving dishes scale up for a bigger table. The app is free and in closed beta. Join the beta if you want to try it, or browse the recipe library.